Eagles improve their times, distances

HERSHEY—The first outdoor competition of the spring for the Brady track team was a success in many ways, despite blow-you-over wind gusts and a last-minute meet format change.

“We were pleased with the results in most areas,” said Eagle coach Rich Britten. “Regardless of the weather, it’s good to get outside.”

The Brady boys earned one gold medal and a host of personal best performances in the non-scoring Hershey/St. Pat’s Invite.

The Eagle girls improved several marks and times over last week’s season opener, even without the benefit of finals.

Due to the wind and threat of rain, meet officials decided to eliminate the traditional preliminaries and run all events as finals.

For the boys, senior thrower Corbin Blede earned the only first place of the day in the shot. He threw 47 feet, 3.5 inches, more than three feet farther than the No. 2 thrower.

“Corbin’s got his eye on the school record,” Britten said of the 50-0.5 mark. “He can definitely get there, he’s just going to need a little competitive push.”

Dillon Charmichael of Loomis could provide that incentive this week at Elwood, Britten said.

Other outstanding performances for the boys came from juniors Kyle Pohlman and Brad Ward and sophomore Lincoln Blede.

“We got a lot of good from Kyle again,” Britten said.

Pohlman improved his personal best marks in the triple jump and long jump finishing third and fourth, respectively.

He also had a wind-aided time of 11.4 seconds in the 100-meter dash for fourth place and helped the 4x100 relay finish fourth as well.

“We had to use Christian (Arterburn) as a sub in the 4x100 relay and they hadn’t practiced handoffs much,” Britten said. “They all ended up exchanging with the wrong hands and we still got fourth so I see that relay getting a lot stronger.”

Brad Ward also had three new personal best performances in the jump events.

He finished second in the high jump clearing 6 feet, 4 inches. Andrew Christen of Anselmo-Merna also cleared 6-4 but beat Ward on earlier misses.

Ward finished fourth and sixth in the triple jump and long jump, respectively.

Britten’s surprise of the day for the boys came when Lincoln Blede cleared 10 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault with no home pit to practice on.

Britten said the Eagle vaulters use borrowed poles and work on the event with only drills because Brady does not have a regulation pit or other equipment.

“It’s pretty amazing that they can pick up an event like pole vault when we don’t have the facilities to practice,” the coach said.

Britten’s other pleasant shock of the day came from sophomore Courtney Widick in the girls long jump.

Britten said Widick has rarely hit 14 feet in practice or competition and flew to 15 feet, 8 inches on Saturday.

“She was spot on,” Britten said. “It’s a matter of mechanics and repetition.”

Widick also placed fourth in the 1600-meter run and ran the anchor of the second-place 4x400 relay.

Megan Polt led the Eagle girls with three individual medals and a relay silver.

She was second, third and sixth in the 400-, 200- and 100-meter dashes as well as boosting the 4x400 relay.

“Megan still has some room to improve,” Britten said.

Freshman Dakota Terry also earned four medals. She placed fifth in the triple jump and sixth in the 1600-meter run while earning medals in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

“We had a lot of kids do very well for the first outdoor meet of the year in nasty wind,” Britten said. “Now we just have to keep working to improve each week.”

Brady travels to the Elwood Invite on Thursday. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

For complete individual results see our print edition. Receive the entire issue of the Gothenburg Times on-line in PDF format each Wednesday for only $25 per year. Call 308-537-3636 to subscribe.

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